Christie currently reports directly to Apple's Craig Federighi, senior vice president of software engineering, but Ive will soon take the lead in managing the company's design team.

Sources have reportedly told Gurman that this shakeup has resulted from a falling out between Ive and Christie. The two reportedly clashed over creative direction when Ive tasked Apple's Human Interface team with designing iOS 7.

iOS 7 signified a major design change for Apple's mobile software compared to previous versions. The overall operating system now sports a much flatter design than its former iterations, and Apple has added a new Control Center menu for quickly managing settings. It feels like a completely new environ emt compared to older editions of iOS.

The shakeup comes just before Apple's World Wide Developer Conference in June, where the company is likely to reveal iOS 8 and its next-generation desktop software, Mac OS X 10.10.

Apple reportedly confirmed in a statement to The New York Times' Brian X. Chen that Christie's retirement was announced two weeks ago.

Was just told Apple VP Greg Christie's retirement was announced weeks ago. I don't know anything about Ive politics.